Calif. Wildfires May be Turning Metals Into Cancer-Causing Compounds

Facts

• According to research released on Tuesday, wildfires in California may be releasing and spreading the cancer-causing toxic compound chromium-6..¹
• In the study published in Nature Communications, higher levels of a hazardous form of the metal chromium were found at wildfire sites with chromium-rich soils compared to the unburned sites nearby. Researchers found that in chromium-rich areas where vegetation caused fires to burn at high heat for significant periods, the chromium-6 concentrations were nearly seven times higher than in unburned areas, increasing the risk that the toxin could become airborne.²
• At the locations studied, soils and plants contained abundant levels of naturally occurring chromium-3. While the toxic offshoot, chromium-6, also exists naturally in the environment, it's more often released as a pollutant from wastewater and runoff in industrial processes.³
• Samples were taken from wildfire sites along California’s North Coast Range, including the 2019 Kincade Fire and the 2020 Hennessey Fire, collecting a total of nearly 38 soil cores from both sites that had burned and sites that hadn't.⁴
• Researchers say that the exposure risk to harmful levels of chromium-6 would initially be faced by those living near the burn sites as well as emergency workers responding to the blazes. However, even after the fires, those working to rebuild or revegetate the areas could face exposure in addition to communities downwind.²
• Earlier this year, the California Air Resources Board ruled to phase out chromium-6 at industrial plants, saying that there was “no known safe level of exposure.” According to the International Agency for Research on Cancer, hexavalent chromium is a group one carcinogen, meaning that is known to cause cancer in humans.⁴

Sources: ¹USA Today, ²Stanford, ³The hill and ⁴NBC.

Narratives

• Narrative A, as provided by Usa today. As climate change causes more frequent, and more severe wildfires the issue of harmful chromium-6 pollution will likely be exacerbated. Wildfire smoke and ash inhalation is already a known public health risk, but the additional knowledge of the risks and threats posed by chromium-6 is even more worrying.
• Narrative B, as provided by New York Post. Wildfires have always existed and to attribute the fires and their health impacts solely to climate change is alarmist and untrue. Over the last 20 years, the area burned annually by fires has trended downwards. Poor land management rather than climate change is the more likely culprit for these deadly blazes.